Nick I often have to use my imagination as I come across many awkward jobs that I still need to use ladders.
Trying to clear this example from the ground even with the type of tools you use like the weedhook would have been useless as the gap was tiny to get the sods out. I even had to bend the guttering to get them out and use quite a bit of force to remove them. That was easier than having to push it further along and out of the end with the end cap removed because of the sods getting stuck under the tiles. To be honest if there was not a conservatory in the way it would have been quicker to dismantle the guttering to clear it.
That one I quoted over the phone (big mistake) too but lucky for me the chap gave me a good tip for the extra time it took sodding about so too speak.
You need to stop relying on vacuum power, which only burns out motors and causes modular poles to jam solid, and start to use your imaginations to create tools that clearweeds, downpipes and right round the swannecks.
We've got them, have never been stumped, we don't even have a roof rack.